It is known in the art to which this invention pertains to provide upon a suitable substrate nickel and chromium coatings. Particularly with respect to relatively small metal parts, this involves what is termed in the art as "bulk plating," and while it is relatively simple to barrel plate quite small parts such as screws and the like with bright nickel in various types of barrel apparatus, it can be difficult then to chromium plate the nickel plated parts. It is normally necessary that the parts be transferred from the barrel in which they have been nickel plated, and be transferred to special barrels to be chromium plated, which is an expensive operation. Alternatively, if these barrels have too limited capacities, chromium plating has been accomplished in trays. This, however, requires substantial labor and results in an expensive plating cycle.
Our earlier proposal in U.K. patent specification No. 1,497,552 provided a plating bath utilizing a source of nickel ions, cobalt ions, iron ions or mixtures thereof and a source of tin ions and optionally a source of zinc ions together with as a complexing agent a gluconate or glucoheptonate (or mixture thereof). Such baths provide excellent deposits having chromium-like appearance at thicknesses up to 5 microns.